'I'm a threat to injustice': Amanda Gorman recounts racial profiling incident with security guard

06 March 2021

This young poet laureate stole the show at Biden's inauguration with an unforgettable performance

Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman recently revealed she was racially profiled by a security guard working near her Los Angeles, Calif. apartment complex. According to Newsweek, Gorman took to Twitter with details about the disheartening encounter as she shared her perspective of the harsh reality that black girls face.

A security guard tailed me on my walk home tonight. He demanded if I lived there because "you look suspicious." I showed my keys & buzzed myself into my building. He left, no apology." She added, This is the reality of black girls: One day you're called an icon, the next day, a threat."

"In a sense, he was right. I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, to inequality, to ignorance," she said in a later tweet. "Anyone who speaks the truth and walks with hope is an obvious and fatal danger to the powers that be."

Gorman, who became the youngest poet to appear at a presidential inauguration when she recited poetry at President Joe Biden's inauguration, also linked her first tweet to a previous one she'd shared on February 14. In that tweet, she included a link to a Washington Post article written about her as she expressed concern about racial injustice.

She also appeared to allude to the incident that recently occurred in Rochester, N.Y. which centered around footage of a police officer caught on camera pepper-spraying a 9-year-old girl. To make matters worse, the child was handcuffed when the officer pepper-sprayed her in the face.

"We live in a contradictory society that can celebrate a black girl poet & also pepper spray a 9 yr old," Gorman said. "Yes see me, but also see all other black girls who've been made invisible. I can not, will not, rise alone."

Gorman's social media status skyrocketed when she was praised for her groundbreaking performance at the presidential inauguration back in January. More than one million social media users have followed her since the inauguration. No further details about the profiling incident have been released.

From Your Site Articles